Buff Orp with injured ear lobe; spots on comb

[Mother of Chaos]

Don’t know if these are related or not:

1) Today our almost 5-month-old pullet Buffy started periodically making loud and long squawks. The few that we’ve seen aren’t provoked by any actions by the other two that we can see. Upon checking, she has an open wound in her right earlobe. Eating well, laying fine, etc. She doesn’t flinch or shy away when the others are near, and there’ve been no signs of fighting. She even allowed her BFF to (gently) peck at it, eating whatever she cleaned off (eww), and repeating twice more before Buffy said enough. I’m wondering about a snag on hardware cloth or a nail, etc.

Should I go with triple antibiotic? (See below)

2) Several days ago, I noticed the little black dots on her comb. Reading around here, it seems to be common with peck injuries, but again, we’re not seeing any pecking going on. There’s not even really a pecking order at the moment. A fellow chicken keeper wondered about dry fowl pox. I didn’t see any lesions in her mouth, and again, eating, laying, and pooping are normal.

Any thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Mother of Chaos]

 

[Chicken_Obsesser]

@Wyorp Rock

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Sounds like whatever you put on their the other one will eat. And her help may be exacerbating the situation.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Sounds like whatever you put on there the other one will eat. And her help may be exacerbating the situation.

Thanks for your post!

That’s kind of what I was worried about. Should I just leave it? I do have some Vetericyn Plus Antimicrobial Poultry spray (forgot I had ordered it). Worth trying? It looks clean, but I’m worried about flies.

Also, any thoughts about her comb? (both black and white spots.) We have two new pullets arriving in three weeks.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Vetericyn Plus Antimicrobial Poultry spray (forgot I had ordered it). Worth trying?

I would try it. Spots look like dry fowl pox which there’s nothing you can do about and will clear on its own. I wonder if that’s what the other hen is picking at on her ear lobe too. The spray won’t help with fowl pox but it will keep it from getting infected if the other hen picks at it. I wonder if the taste will stop the picking too. You will probably get better advice but that’s my two cents. The scabs from the fowl pox will fall off and be contagious for a while after so it would be best to keep the pullets out of the general area for a while if you can

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I would try it. Spots look like dry fowl pox which there’s nothing you can do about and will clear on its own. I wonder if that’s what the other hen is picking at on her ear lobe too. The spray won’t help with fowl pox but it will keep it from getting infected if the other hen picks at it. I wonder if the taste will stop the picking too. You will probably get better advice but that’s my two cents. The scabs from the fowl pox will fall off and be contagious for a while after so it would be best to keep the pullets out of the general area for a while if you can

Thanks! How would you define “for a while”? (keeping new ones out of the area)

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

How would you define “for a while”? (keeping new ones out of the area)

This is why you need someone with more experience than me. I want to say a couple weeks but I’m not sure that’s correct. The scabs will be contagious just lying around in the dirt. But the good news dry pox is not a big deal and I feel like everyone has to deal with it eventually. I passed it to my neighbors’ birds when taking care of them while my flock was recovering from it and that was even changing shoes before walking across the street.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

This is why you need someone with more experience than me. I want to say a couple weeks but I’m not sure that’s correct. The scabs will be contagious just lying around in the dirt. But the good news dry pox is not a big deal and I feel like everyone has to deal with it eventually. I passed it to my neighbors’ birds when taking care of them while my flock was recovering from it and that was even changing shoes before walking across the street.

Yeah, some things just feel inevitable.

They (and we) have no contact with other chicken flocks. I guess it’s from the wild birds (Carolina wrens up to crows) that fly over constantly.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can you "unfold" the earlobe a bit more?

I'd clean it with the Vetericyn and access it. She may have caught it on fencing or something. Photos of what it looks like unfolded and cleaned if possible.

As for the comb, it's very hard to see the scabs and tell anything about them. Possible it may be Fowl Pox, but it may be from picking/pecking, scraping against something or (?), if you can get some clear photos of those, that would be helpful.

Fwiw - Fowl Pox is a virus spread by Mosquitoes. There's really no way to avoid it sometimes.

Dry Form of Fowl Pox will show as lesions on the comb, wattles, facial tissue, etc. Dry Form usually will resolve on its own over the course of several weeks. Applying Iodine to the scabs can help dry it up. I've never done anything about Dry Form of Fowl Pox, just letting it heal up all by itself. Just making sure no birds are acting sick/off food, etc. Never had one even act sick with it.

Wet Form of Fowl Pox (diptheric form) is more serious and lesions can cover the eyes, the scabs are much worse and there's lesions inside the beak too. Often some supportive care is needed to help birds through especially if the eyes are scabbed over and they aren't able to see well enough to eat/drink. Again, Iodine is used on the lesions, except the eyes which you want to apply Terramycin eye ointment if possible. Sanitizing water with Oxine or Iodine can also be of benefit to lessen the spread. An antibiotic may be appropriate to help with secondary bacterial infections depending on how severe the infection is.

One thing about Fowl Pox in both forms, birds that have recovered are "immune" (I say Resistant) to the strain they have been exposed to, so they shouldn't have an outbreak again.